Danantara commits $2.5 billion for JBS protein joint venture in Asia-Pacific
Indonesia’s Danantara has agreed to invest $2.5 billion in a joint venture with meat processor JBS. The venture will own JBS operations in Australia and New Zealand and target protein markets across Southeast Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Danantara takes 25% stake
Indonesia’s Daya Anagata Nusantara Investment Management Agency, known as BPI Danantara, has agreed to commit $2.5 billion, or about Rp44.5 trillion, to a joint venture with global meat producer and processor JBS NV. The new company will focus on protein markets in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
VIVA, citing The Edge, reported the agreement on 8 August 2026. JBS management said in its official announcement on Friday that Danantara would hold a 25% equity interest in the planned venture. The transaction gives Indonesia’s sovereign investment platform a direct position in a regional food supply chain spanning established production bases and growing consumer markets.
The joint venture will hold full equity ownership of all JBS operations currently active in Australia and New Zealand. That structure places the company’s existing businesses in those two countries inside a platform designed to serve a broader Asia-Pacific market rather than creating a venture limited to new projects.
Investment divided into two phases
Danantara will not provide the full commitment at once. In the initial phase, it will inject $800 million to acquire a 9.6% interest. The balance will be invested in stages over the following three years, eventually taking Danantara’s holding to the announced 25%.
The phased structure gives the partners a multi-year funding framework for building the venture. It also means that the initial ownership position will be substantially smaller than Danantara’s final stake, with further capital deployment tied to the three-year investment schedule described by VIVA.
No details were provided on the venture’s valuation, individual assets, production capacity or the allocation of the remaining capital. The announcement also did not specify whether the platform plans to build or acquire processing facilities in Southeast Asia.
JBS targets Southeast Asian expansion
JBS is a major global meat producer and processor, but it currently has no processing facilities in Southeast Asia, according to VIVA. The partnership therefore combines JBS’s operations in Australia and New Zealand with Danantara’s aim of strengthening its position in the regional food industry supply chain.
For JBS, the venture offers a route to deepen penetration of Southeast Asian markets and extend its geographic reach across Asia-Pacific. For Danantara, the 25% interest provides exposure to an operating protein platform rather than only a minority investment in a standalone plant. Producers, processors and traders will now watch how the partners use the staged capital, particularly whether it supports additional capacity, acquisitions or distribution links between Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets.